Before the Music Dies

[Lazaro Vega]

http://www.beforethemusicdies.com/index2.html

Film Summary

With outstanding performances and revealing interviews, Before the Music Dies takes a critical and comedic look at the homogenization of popular music with commentary by some of the industry's biggest talent such as Stevie Wonder, Erykah Badu, Branford Marsalis, Dave Matthews, Elvis Costello, Bonnie Raitt, Questlove (from hiphop group the Roots), and many more. Using historic footage the film looks at the evolution of American music and the artists who created it and pulls back the curtain (in a very creative way) to expose the sad truth behind today's "artificial" music stars.

"The reality is that superficiality is in," says Marsalis. "And depth and quality is kind of out."

After the death of his musician brother, director Andrew Shapter was inspired to make this film. He and Producer Joel Rasmussen and the film crew traveled thousands of miles, visiting dozens of cities, speaking with hundreds of fans, journalists, record executives and musicians while searching for "real" American music. What they found were mega-talents without a major label, including one artist Eric Clapton believes is "the real thing."

"I've never heard anyone like him," says Clapton. "He plays like nobody else."

In addition to the artists, Shapter and Rasmussen put the questions to writers and critics from The Future of Music Coalition, Indie 911, CNN, USA Today, Rolling Stone, The New York Times, NPR and others. Many questions were raised such as "why do they always play the some few songs over and over again on the radio? Why do major labels no longer allow musicians to develop their career over time? Why do local radio stations not feel so local anymore? In addition, why is it that all the acts promoted as the 'new thing' seem to resemble fashion models?"

The film also features live performances by many of the artists featured in the film including Dave Matthews, Erykah Badu, Calexico, Branford Marsalis, Eric Clapton, The Roots, Blaze, Guy Forsyth, and Correo Aereo.

[Lazaro Vega]

And in related news:

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/388230p-329199c.html

New York Daily News - http://www.nydailynews.com

Record of failure

Friday, February 3rd, 2006

A nationwide poll released by Rolling Stone magazine and The Associated Press makes clear what music aficionados have been grumbling about for years: The music business is selling junk, and charging way too much for it.

Music in general is getting worse, according to 58% of the survey's respondents, and a whopping 74% said the price of CDs is too high.

But the real measure of dissatisfaction comes from the fans.

"Less talented people are able to get a song out there and make a quick million and you never hear from them again," is how one 30-year-old from Massachusetts put it to the pollsters.

The honchos at recording labels and commercial radio stations, who often seem literally deaf to audience feedback, need to wake up to reality. They can either restore quality to the airwaves and sales racks, or get used to shrinking audiences and vanishing profits.

According to Nielsen Soundscan, 618 million CDs were sold last year, a drop of nearly 19% from the year before. And millions have abandoned commercial FM radio, with its stale, predictable playlists, in favor of satellite radio.

I recently talked with jazz giant Ramsey Lewis, a Grammy-winning pianist and composer.

Lewis, who has been selling records for decades, has partnered with public television in a major effort to set things right. Starting in April, the pianist will host a 13-episode weekly TV series, "Legends of Jazz," set to air on public television stations.

The series will feature dozens of performers, mixing giants like Tony Bennett and Chick Corea with up-and-coming talent.

It will be the first time in 40 years that live jazz performances will be aired on national television - a kind of return to the days when "The Ed Sullivan Show" introduced America to pop acts like Elvis, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, along with jazz performers like Ella Fitzgerald and Rahsaan Roland Kirk.

Lewis blames money-hungry record labels for the gap between what the public wants and what the industry sells.

"They don't encourage quality today," Lewis said. "When I was coming along, Columbia Records would sit with you and assume it would take two or three albums to get the act where it needed to be. Then the company would structure its promotion based on one, two or three years. They encouraged quality and innovation - that's why groups like the Beatles would use sitars, string orchestras and so forth."

By contrast, according to Lewis, "in the 1990s, companies began saying 'We've got 10 jazz acts and it will take two years to make our money back.'"

Rather than nurture talent for the long term, he says, record labels began picking a handful of artists to promote, and dictated how they should sound to generate maximum sales.

"It's corruption from the inside," Lewis said. "Not thievery or mischievousness, but falling prey to needing money quickly to pay the execs and shareholders."

Lewis says the recent failures of the music business created the opening for him to get the new show off the ground.

"The record industry as we knew it no longer exists," he said. "We're in the midst of companies looking for a new formula. Are we that formula? I don't know."

But what we do know is that nobody's happy with the bland offerings of the music business.

Here's hoping the record labels finally hear Lewis' wakeup call.